U.S. telcos don’t want your phone to have a theft-preventing “kill switch” because it cuts into their insurance business

by Joey deVilla on November 19, 2013

The use of “kill switches” to prevent theft are nothing new. Many car stereo and amp units require a code to be usable after they’ve been disconnected from the battery, and you can buy switches that are either hidden or require a code that must be activated before the car can be started. Right now, you can remotely lock a stolen mobile device, but a thief can simply do a hard reset to wipe it clean, then use or sell it. What would help deter theft is a kill switch that would render the device unusable, even if a hard reset is performed.

The public argument that carriers make against kill switches is that a malicious third party could take control of the feature and use it to disable phones. They even brought up the spectre of disabling the phones of Defense officials or police officers. They also claim that deactivated phones couldn’t be subsequently reactivated if found, which isn’t true in the case of Apple’s “Activation Lock” feature.

This isn’t the first time that carriers have stood in the way of progress because it cut into their business. It wasn’t all that long ago that they made it difficult or inconvenient to put apps on phones, saying that they could be threats to the network. The success of the iPhone changed all that; what change would it take to get carriers on board with kill switches?